Process of homogenizing emulsions.



To all whom; it may concern:

1 UNITED STATES rA ENr o ir'ron' j GEORGE KUNICK, on LononiaN LANDQPrFroo-Es s- OF 'HOM'VQGENIZYING EMULSIONS.,

Be it known that I, GEORGE KUNIcK, a subject of the German'Emperorand aresident of London, England, have invented' a certain new and-usefulImprovement in' Processes of Homogenizing Emulsions, of

which the following is a' specification.

This invention relates to an improved, process for rendering morehomogeneous liquids or semiliquids com-posed of various in gredients,and is more es ecially applicable (in obtaining homogenize milkin whichthe fat plartioles are completely disintegrated-and so t oroughlyincorporated in the other constituents that they will .not riseto thesurface on warming the, milk or when the milk is -al-' lowed to standfor some time.

Various machines are employed to i enize or'iix milk and other liquidscontain in fat. According to one process milk isdriven through severalverynarrow channels or passages and on issuingi from' the same strikesagainst a st'ationary or rotating disk or cone, the im act sufiicing tobreak up the fat globules. ccording to another process the milk isforced underexcessive pressure throu h minute orifices into the interiorof a cylin or where thefine jets strike one an-' other and so effectdisintegration of the fat v the use of an ..:o dinary drop particles.Such homogenizingemachines only partially effect the desired objectthatis to say, the milk is incompletely homogenized thereby. Moreover, thesemachines require a pressure of from 2-400 atmospheres, which involveslarge ower and heavy cost, For instance, a macliine capableofhomogenizing one thousand liters of milk in onehour should be fromtwelve to fifteen horsepower. Under my invention these disadvanta es are'40 avoided by combining the working 0 one of the I machmessu'ch as'above indicated 'or of any other homogenizing machine with efiicientcentrifugal cream-separator. i I g If a drop of homogenized milk isexamined underthe microscope and compared with a ofunhomo emzed milk, itis found that the argest fat g obules contained in the un- Yvhomogenizedmilk have. disappeared and smaller particles have takentheir place; but

- the image does not show the resence only. of

fat lobules-of almost'equa size andlvery sma diameter, as. is soughttobe obtained by homogenizm milk. I The homogenization has, in fact,een. only partial; but if milk so partiallyhomogenizedisafterwardcentrifuhomog Patented Jan. 8, 1907.

- galized those fat globules have already l v been broken up'mto verysmall particles or fragments'are no longer separated from the Y Iskim-milk by centrifugal action,,but flow oil:

with the same, while only the insufliciently-' I disintegratedfat'globu'les remain with the cream issuing'at the cream-outlet. Theoutflowingmflk is thennot f ut 'contains fat insuch a finely-dividedcondition that it is entirely fixed inthe milk and can no longer collecton the surface.

ments, it may contain between ty and Milk so obtained is naturallylessrich-in fat than the I original but, as determined b 'experiseventy-five per cent. of the original fat", the

percentage depending on the efliciency of the omogenizing-machine. Ifthe cream which contains the rest of the fat is then again homogenizedand centrifu alized either alone;

or with a fresh uantity 0 milk. and the cen: I

trifugalizedpro uct'sare mixed, there is reproduced in the milk theentire original con:

tent of fat in the 'stateof exceedingly fine f division. I Y

milk and. cream, treating the cream alone in A cheaper embodiment of theinvention consists in first separating, the milk into skim-I thehomogenizingsmacliine, andthen treating j the" cream thus incompletelyhomogenized in the centrifugal machine in the manner described; In-thisway the'cream is separated into two portions, one containing onlycompletel 'disintegrat'ed fat globules, which portion" ows. off throughthe pipe usually employed for the'skim-milk and the other portioncontaining only insufiiciently-disintegrated fat globules, which'passesthrough the pipe generally used for the cream The part of the cream lastmentioned may then alone or mixedjwith the cream separated from anotherqggntity of. milk be again homogenized and ce cream'resultmg from thehomogenizing and centrifugalizin operation and containing only the competely-disinte ated fat parti cles is added to the skim-mil ner acompletely-homogenized milk can be obtained. 3

, ,-The above process is mainly intended to trifugalized, :pvhile thatpart of the too In this manbe used in the production ofmilk-powder 01 Idried milk and-likeproducts possessing considerable durability, it beinga verydes rable" Object Obtain s p foduct wh Qh will;

not turn .rancid and will show no separation of" the fatparticles on thesurface when dissolved in water This problem can only be process tohomogenize milk well even in.

solved when all the fat globules are distributed in the milk in tinyparticles; A greatsaving in working cost is also hereby efi'ected,

because the power required to drive a cen- ,trif ugal machineis verysmall; A perfectly homogenized productcan be obtained, al-

though the homogenizing-machine, for exsmall plants which have not thepower required for a high pressure homogenizing-machine.

The process above described in its apphcation to milk or cream can alsobe applied withiequal success to any liquid or; sennhquid containing fator other substances 1n suspended formfor example, eg -yolki eggand t 1elike.

fat globules by centrifugal separation, subyolk reparations, oil orfish-oi emu sions,

' Having now described my invention, what 2 5 I claim, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

The improved process of homogenizing emulsions consisting inhomogenizing the liquid, removing the larger or non-disintegrated 3ojecting the latter again to the homogenizing process, and addingtogether the homogenized fractions of theoriginal liquid, substantiallyas described.

- '35 In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specificationin thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

GEORGE KUNICK.

Witnesses:

JNo. ARMSTRONG, Junr.

